An Apple
by feel-good-incorporated
Summary: A retelling of the 10th to 11th Doctor regeneration and the events after.
1. Regeneration

**AU- Rose chose to leave. Amy was visited by the 10th Doctor as a child, not the 11th.  
Also, I don't own Doctor Who, unfortunately**

The pain. Oh, god, the awful radiation, coursing through his body, killing his cells one by one. He hated slow deaths. Breath hitching as he stumbled around the TARDIS, he hit buttons here and there.

It hadn't been a goodbye. It was supposed to be closure, seeing his friends one last time. Instead it had left him guilty and sad. Martha, Jack, Donna, River, he had failed them in this incarnation. He had failed a lot of people in this incarnation.

There was still Rose. His Rose. It had been years of his time since she had chosen to leave. She given up her wild life with the Doctor to lead a "normal" life. He checked in on her periodically, always from afar where she couldn't see him. She was the only one, the only one he hadn't tainted with his destructive habits. She was the only one he hadn't failed.

He typed in her coordinates. She lived in a small flat outside of London. The TARDIS lurched for a second as it accepted these directions, then settled with a grating sound outside of Rose's house. He staggered to the door, flimsy plimsolls bumping into various objects. His vision was already spotty, and he felt dizzy and nauseous. It was only a matter of time before his regeneration began...

The night air was cold, unrelenting. He considered knocking on her door, but a large part of him didn't want her to see him like this again. One regeneration was enough to watch. So instead he stood there, remembering his adventures with her, comforted by the idea that she was safe.

* * *

Rose awoke with a bolt at the familiar sound of the TARDIS's brakes. Pulling on her robe and glancing out the window, she grinned at the sight of the blue box and the Doctor. She knew that he visited her, when he thought she wasn't looking. She _was_ looking, and this time she was determined to see him. She ran down the stairs as fast as she could. By the time she had pulled on her boots, though, the Doctor was already slipping inside the TARDIS.

"Doctor!" She called after him, dashing across her front lawn. He froze for a second, giving Rose enough time to follow him into the blue box.

"Rose," He whispered hoarsely. "You need to leave."

She stared at him, taking in his pained walking and obvious distress. "Doctor, I'm not going to go." Her lip twitched. "Are you alright?"

He didn't answer. "You need to go, Rose."

"You're dying, aren't you?" He bowed his head and quietly walked to the other side of the TARDIS. "Oh my god." She began to sob. "You are."

"Yes, I'm dying Rose, and with the amount of radiation I absorbed my regeneration will have enough power to destroy the whole TARDIS which is why you need to go _right now_ before I start, because you are _not_ getting hurt! Do you understand?"

"Doctor... What happened?" She asked him softly.

"Rose, you need to go. I'm not-"

Suddenly, the TARDIS jerked to the side. The Doctor immediately began twisting knobs and pulling levers, desperately trying to land the TARDIS somewhere. Rose joined him. "She's taking us somewhere!" He shouted over the din.

"Obviously! But where?"

"Middle of nowhere, seems like-" The Doctor was interrupted again, this time by his own agony. He doubled over, clutching the console for support. "It's starting."

Rose started to cry again. She still remembered his last regeneration. The pain he was in. How different he was after. She stared at her Doctor, her beautiful doctor with his messy hair and his pinstripe suit. He was going to change into someone new again, a thought that caused her more sadness than anything in the whole universe could.

"Don't regenerate," she moaned. "Please don't."

"Trust me, Rose," He paused. "I don't want to go." Wiping a tear, he continued. "It's to late for you to leave, but, just...go hide somewhere. Away from me. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm not going to go. I'm staying with you."

By now, the TARDIS had stopped, right above the earth. Everything seemed so small and inconsequential compared to this moment.

The Doctor didn't respond, but he didn't protest either. Instead he walked away from her to the center of the TARDIS and stood there, inhaling and exhaling deeply. She watched as he lifted his hand, internally wincing at the grief plastered on his face when he saw the golden light dancing around his hand. It was starting. The light spread, from his arms all the way to his face. He managed a small smile to Rose.

And then he exploded.

This was far worse then his last regeneration. His arms and face had disappeared into the fire, his screams echoing through the TARDIS. It was at the same time magnificent and terrifying to watch, like a firework devouring the sky. Rose pressed against the wall, one hand over her face to keep from going blind. She could vaguely make out his face through the bright shine, watching as it morphed from his own face into someone new altogether.

The screams stopped. The light around him dimmed. Gone was her Doctor, and in his place stood a young, gangly looking bloke with a flop of dark brown hair. He grinned widely, staring down at himself. "Legs! Still got legs, good! Arms, hands. Ooh, fingers. Lots of fingers." He appeared to be doing a body check. "Ears? Yes. Eyes: two. Nose... I've had worse. Chin- blimey! Hair... I'm a girl!" His voice squeaked. "No! No! I'm not a girl!" He rubbed his Adam's apple. Then, yanking his hair down, he exclaimed, "And still not ginger!"

Rose couldn't help but gawk. Even though she had watched him regenerate before, it was still _so_ weird to see. She knew that it was still the same person (basically, anyway) on the inside, but sometimes it was hard to get past the outside.

Almost as an afterthought, the new Doctor spun around to face his companion.

"Rose! Brilliant, brilliant Rose!" He hugged her tightly. "New me! New body! New adventures awaiting!"

Rose bit her lip, staring at him. "You're different...again."

"Well, that's the thing about regeneration, happens every time I die." His face registered something in hers, a bit of... _dejection?_ "Are you okay?" He asked slowly.

"It's not easy for me, okay? You changed everything about you and," She sighed. "It's hard."

He ducked his head, thinking. "Do you want to go home?" He said after a while.

"No, of course not." She blurted quickly, shaking her head. "I just need some time to adjust, that's all."

He was shorter now, and they could almost look eye to eye. He looked the same age as her. He was very attractive, to be honest, with his mop of hair and brooding bone structure, but she knew they could never be together. The Doctor could never be with anyone.

He clapped his hands together, obviously relieved that she didn't want to leave. "So," He smiled maniacally. "Where are we gonna go?"

Shrugging, she leaned against the console. "Ah... Where ever. As long as its fun." She gave him her 'sexy half grin', but he wasn't paying attention.

He paced to the other side of the TARDIS, pulling a tiny mirror down and examining his face. After a beat he looked again at his body, taking in his lanky limbs and huge feet. "I'm young. Haven't been this young before. Different."

Rose slid an eye over to him. "Your clothes," She gestured at him. "They're, uh, a bit tattered."

"Oh! Yes! Clothes! I need clothes. I'll-"

The Doctor crumpled to the ground. Rose rushed to him. "Post regeneration energy, right?"

"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "Gotta land somewhere, get an apple."

"An apple? Have you gone daft?"

"I just had a craving for an apple. Ooh, never had a craving before...Good thing I know just the place to find an apple!" He quickly jumped up on his feet, fighting through the dizziness that always came post-regeneration. "We're going to go visit an old friend of mine!"

Rose looked at the new Doctor with a mix of excitement and worry.

Their adventures had just begun.


	2. Pond Reunites

Far beneath the TARDIS, in a small English town by the name of Leadworth, a young woman sat at her window watching the stars. Most people in her town prayed to God when they had problems, but not Amy Pond. She curled up in her window seat and talked to the galaxy. She had always done that, ever since she was seven.

That was the year she met the Doctor. She still remembered it like it was yesterday...

 _The doorbell rang. Then again. Then again. Amy turned away from the telly, cautiously walking to the door. Cracking it open an inch, she peeked out at the porch. A tall, middle aged man with funny hair and a weird looking torch smiled at her._

 _"Hello! I'm the Doctor! Can I come in?"_

 _"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers..."_

 _"I'm not a stranger." He lifted a badge. "I'm with the police. I've even got a police box!"_

 _"If you're a policeman, then why are you called the Doctor?"_

 _"That's what they call me. I don't know why. I call me the Doctor, too. I still don't know why."_

 _Amy furrowed her brow. "Are you here about the ghost?"_

 _"Yes. Does it scare you?"_

 _She gulped. "Can you get rid of it?"_

 _He grinned. "You bet."_

 _"Are you sure you're a policeman?"  
_

 _"Not at all." His smile grew even bigger._

No one had been home that night, meaning that whenever she tried to tell someone about the wonderful Doctor, they chalked it up to an imaginary friend created in the wake of her parents disappearance. But four therapists and many dollars wasted later, Amy still talked to him. She knew he couldn't hear her, but it was comforting to imagine him up there in his blue spaceship, traveling the universe.

He had promised he'd come back, one day. She had been so excited, even packed a little suitcase for herself. She had waited the rest of the night outside, wrapped in her peacoat to keep from freezing. 11 years later, and he still hadn't come. All she had to prove that he was real, that she hadn't made him up, was a sticky note with three words written on it:

 _I'll be back._

Grasping the note in one hand, Amy looked up to the sky. "Hello Doctor." She started. "Today's been... Well, this whole week... No, my whole life has been so _boring_. Leadworth is a dead end for everything. You were the most interesting thing that ever happened to me, and you were only here for five hours!" She paused. "Doctor, if you're listening, please come back. I-"

Amy stopped. Up in the atmosphere, she could see a tiny dot moving. Craning her head out the window, she gasped. It couldn't be... She grabbed the fire exit ladder kept underneath her bed and threw it out the window. She awkwardly navigated her way down to the garden, bare feet soon covered in dirt as she raced to the materializing TARDIS. She stopped in her tracks, awed by the machine she never thought she'd see again.

As the door creaked open, Amy held her breath. Instead of the Doctor, though, a blonde woman and a 20 something man stepped out.

"Hello! Is this 1620 Greenwalt Street?"

Amy nodded, slowly. "Are you friend's of the Doctor? You'e got his ship..."

"I _am_ the Doctor!" He said, annoyed. "Do you know Amelia Pond?"

She furrowed her brow. "You're not the Doctor! He's older than you, and that was 11 years ago! People don't age backwards. And _how_ do you know my name? Did the Doctor tell you?"

He looked surprised, than confused. "11 years ago..." He muttered. "11... Wait! Oh! You're Amelia!" He broke out in a grin. "You grew up!"

"Who _are_ you?"

He straightened his back, fixing his ill fitting suit jacket. "I'm the Doctor. I changed my face, but it's me. And I have been away to long, I know, and I am so sorry."

Amy looked at this man, a man completely different from the Doctor she knew as a child. He was shorter, younger, floppy haired, and a tad weird, but... "Doctor." She tilted her head. "How does one change their face?"

He laughed, pulling her in for a hug. "Long story. Do you have an apple?"

"An apple?"

The blonde woman snickered. "That was my reaction. Oh, I'm Rose, by the way." She gave a half wave. "I'm the Doctor's gir-"

"Friend. Rose is my friend. Travels with me."

"You travel with people?" Amy thought immediately of what it would be like to live with the Doctor, to explore the world outside of her tiny home.

"Yes, I do, except when I don't."

"Uh-huh." Amy frowned. "Doctor, uh, is TARDIS supposed to do that?"

Spinning around, the Doctor gasped. "Nonononononononono..." The TARDIS had started to dematerialize. "Rose! Hurry!"

The Doctor gave Amy a quick smile. "I'll be back!"

And then he disappeared. Again.


End file.
